Leo Burnett’s win of the pounds 60 million global account for Heinz
Tomato Ketchup is a testament to the massive co-operative effort by a
team drawn together from different offices across the network.
’The timescale was demanding,’ Nick Brien, the chief executive of
Burnetts in London who led the pitch from the start, says.
’We identified huge brand strengths consistent with a truly global icon
brand as well as real opportunities for improvement. We then turned our
focus to the development of a contemporary unified brand positioning in
which local cultures and consumer usage could be fully represented.’
It was no easy task but Burnetts’ tactics ultimately brought victory
over TBWA Worldwide, Euro RSCG, DDB Needham and Bates -its rivals in the
pitch.
In fact, Burnetts had to move very quickly, having just six weeks to
prepare after Heinz called a global review of eight core categories with
the aim of ’creating a unified and global brand positioning’, as well as
increasing sales.
The initial briefing took place in New York and was led by Eric Salamon,
the general manager for corporate marketing at Heinz. Burnetts pulled
together its key players from Europe, the US, Canada, Latin America and
Asia to constitute the global pitch team. One week later, they met in
London to discuss the best strategy.
Three weeks after the original briefing, everyone went to Pittsburgh for
the first round of the pitch, with all of Heinz’s key regional and
corporate executives present. This was followed by a meeting in London
on 1 October.
Despite the speed of the contest, Burnetts’ work - described by Brien as
’fresh and breakthrough’ - will not be unveiled until next May at the
earliest.
’It will be in keeping with the stature of all Heinz’s advertising,’
Brien promises. ’Heinz recognised that our experience of managing other
global icon brands such as McDonald’s, Marlboro and Coke would be an
important strength of our network.’
